ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1957 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1957 ************************************ 14 Feb 2000 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked whether or is an appropriate name for a 10th century Swedish man. This letter is a brief answer to your question. was a common name throughout Scandinavia in the Viking age [1, 2]. is probably not appropriate for your period. The first recorded instance of the name is King Magnu/s den Gode of Norway and Denmark, who died in 1047. His name subsequently became very popular [3]. The slash in the names represents an accent on the preceding letter. is not a correct name; it is a mixture of Old English and Old Norse elements. The pure Norse equivalent would be and the patronymic byname derived from it would be . We didn't find an example of , but it is a plausible invention. is a fairly common prototheme (first element) in Norse names, and <-brandr> appears in combination with at least a dozen other protothemes [2, 3]. An invented name is not the best re-creation, but this invention is better than most. is a reasonable name for the culture you want to re-create. The Vikings wrote in runes. The spellings we've given above are standard transliterations into our alphabet. If you're interested in the runic spelling of your name, please write us again. We hope this brief letter has been useful. Please write us again if you have any questions. I was assisted in researching and writing this letter by Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Lindorm Eriksson, Hartmann Rogge, Talan Gwynek, and Giles Leabrook. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 14 Feb 2000 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] Fleck, G. (aka Geirr Bassi Haraldsson), _The Old Norse Name_, Studia Marklandica (series) (Olney, Maryland: Yggsalr Press, 1977). [2] Uppsala University Department for Scandinavian Languages, "Samnordisk tuntextdatabas" (WWW: Uppsala universitet, 29 Oct 1997). http://www.nordiska.uu.se/forskn/samnord.htm This database lists several Viking-age examples of in various spellings. It has at least two names with the deuterotheme <-brandr>: (O:l 73{40}) and (DR M82, 1065-75). [3] Lind, E.H., _Norsk-Isla:ndska Dopnamn ock Fingerade Namn fra*n Medeltiden_ (Uppsala & Leipzig: 1905-1915, sup. Oslo, Uppsala and Kobenhavn: 1931), Magnu/s, -brandr.